Immune adjuvants are molecules that signal through receptors to enhance immune responses. One example is the addition of adjuvants to vaccines to enhance the response to the vaccine antigens. The improvement of vaccine adjuvants is an important current goal in vaccine development. Adjuvants may also be important for other types of immunotherapy, including potential treatments under development for cancer, autoimmunity and other disorders in which the immune system may play a role in either pathophysiology or therapy.
Immune adjuvants may be derived from microbial molecules that generate responses in the mammalian recipient. Immune adjuvants are recognized by receptors, often in the category of innate immune receptors. One example of an innate immune receptor is the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family. TLRs recognize acylated molecules, such as lipoproteins, lipopeptides and glycolipids. TLRs can also respond to agonists by signaling to induce immune activation.